All posts by hangmantitan

TV Review

Better Call Saul 1.2 – “Mijo”

2 Comments

“Mijo” was arguably as much of an introduction to Better Call Saul as the pilot episode “Uno“, lacking only a colorless flash-forward to signify the end of an era and simultaneously herald a new one. Though both episodes introduced important new characters and quickly solidified the tone of the series, “Mijo” already began to show signs of peeling away from the influence of forefather Breaking Bad.

A certain someone popped up at the end of the pilot and played a huge role in this second episode — for the sake of those yet to watch, we’ll save that reveal until after the jump. Abandon all hope, ye who have not watched Better Call Saul!

Continue reading Better Call Saul 1.2 – “Mijo” →

Staff Picks

Netflix Picks #1

1 Comment

Jorge: Full disclosure, The Hunt is an unfair pick for a Netflix recommendation. If you’re settling down with a glass of wine and a partner to cuddle with this Valentine’s Day, you will be more than disappointed. You will be devastated. But if you’re in the mood to distrust your fellow man and sympathize with a poor soul, then where better to turn than Danish cinema? (Of course, if I were really mean it would be a Lars von Trier film.) In his best, most heartbreaking role, Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Hannibal) plays a family man wrongfully accused of molesting a child at his day care. Off to a rough start, I know, but follow him for a few minutes and you won’t be able to look away from the handsome, lovable man who somehow played a Bond villain. The Hunt‘s pace is slow and thoughtful, like most movies from anywhere other than the US and India, and it serves to convince us that this story is nothing but true and harrowing. It’s a tough two hours, yet worth it for a different perspective at a time when the media is quick to point the finger. This is a story about innocence in the face of blame and hatred.

Continue reading Netflix Picks #1 →

TV Review

The Affair 1.8

Leave a comment

Another relatively slow episode of The Affair comes at the exact wrong time, in the eighth hour, with only two more to go before season one wraps. Episode seven was solid and did much to dispel fears that the show had been strong out of the gate only to lose steam along the way to the finish line. Hour eight, however, seemed to lose a bit of that footing.

One thing that the show kind of flirted with early on but never fully succumbed to was the way-too-common device of having every family member have a massive number of personal problems. The elder Son of Solloway Martin is angsty and inimical in the way most teenage boys are, Whitney is angsty and inimical in the way most teenage girls are, and poor little Trevor just wants someone to pay attention to him — this was the set-up, more or less, over the first chunk of episodes, and it was believable and relatable.

Continue reading The Affair 1.8 →

Writer Series: Charlie Kaufman

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)

2 Comments

Charlie Kaufman’s feature screenplays have only been adapted by four directors. There’s Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.), there’s Michel Gondry (Human Nature and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), there’s Kaufman himself (Synecdoche, New York and the upcoming Anomalisa). The fourth is none other than George Clooney, who chose the Chuck Barris biopic Confessions of a Dangerous Mind as his directorial debut.

Confessions was a battle of personalities from the start. Kaufman, still a youngish scribe, was already gaining a reputation as a writer very involved with a given film at every stage (up until now that was a point in his favor; stay tuned). Kaufman attracted some big interest, and Bryan Singer was originally attached to direct Johnny Depp in the lead role. Once the two of them moved on it was Clooney who moved into the director’s chair, arguably enjoying the height of Clooneydom following O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Ocean’s Eleven. And the largest personality of them all might be Chuck Barris himself, author of the autobiography Confessions, host of a dozen late-night gameshows, veritable connoisseur of crap TV. Barris claimed he worked as an international CIA assassin on the side while producing television by day, which has never been confirmed or denied but does indeed make for one hell of a story.

Continue reading Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) →

TV Review

Better Call Saul 1.1 – “Uno”

10 Comments

While the most obvious question was probably about how to spin a new series out of Breaking Bad, the more infrequent dilemma considered whether Better Call Saul even should be a new series. The idea of fidgeting with Bad at all is a tricky one. If you’re Bryan Cranston it’s probably a tough situation: on the one hand if you’re asked to step into Walt’s shoes again then of course you say yes, but on the other you maybe feel you’ve already done your job. You’ve done your job incredibly well, and a return might threaten to slide you into one-trick-pony status.

Though Cranston’s nowhere to be seen in the opening episode of Saul, Walt’s influence is still apparent. A nifty black-and-white intro is certainly set after the events of Breaking Bad, and we discover that Saul’s prediction about his future employment at a Cinnabon in Nebraska was prophetic. We also discover that the guy fears for his life as he pounds cinnamon into dough hour after hour, catching menacing glances from well-meaning customers. He’s miserable, and it’s both Walt’s fault and his own.

Continue reading Better Call Saul 1.1 – “Uno” →

News

Film & TV News: February 9

Leave a comment

News

-BAFTAs went to pretty much exactly who you’d expect last night, with Boyhood taking Best Picture, Eddie Redmayne taking Best Actor for The Theory of Everything, and Julianne Moore taking Best Actress for Still Alice. Stephen Hawking and Felicity Jones presenting Best Visual Effects to Interstellar was about as exciting as it got.

-Speaking of Felicity Jones, the actress has reportedly been cast as lead in Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars spinoff. Other notable casting news includes Keanu Reeves and Christina Hendricks joining Nicolas Winding Refn’s next film The Neon Demon.

-For anyone who hasn’t checked it out yet, the ridiculously detailed Jurassic World website is pretty cool.

Continue reading Film & TV News: February 9 →

TV Review

Agent Carter 1.4 – “The Blitzkrieg Button”

1 Comment

In this episode Peggy Carter is given the all-enviable task of taking the lunch order at the S.S.R. precinct, and the fourth hour of Agent Carter only sporadically raises the excitement level above that low threshold. The sentiment was more or less the same during the previous episode “Time and Tide”: with only eight episodes in total, is there really enough time to spend on lunch order gags and Stan Lee cameos?

The good thing is that the executive producers of Agent Carter did confirm that the show is not a miniseries after all, despite that being the impression nearly everyone was under up until this point, and that a second season is a possibility. If so, a slower approach can certainly work. Still, though, even as each episode is full of stuff to like, it seems as if Agent Carter is less interested in telling a cohesive story and more interested in tying everything back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Continue reading Agent Carter 1.4 – “The Blitzkrieg Button” →

Director Series: Peter Weir

Fearless (1993)

1 Comment

The Peter Weir we have today is one that seems to take his time releasing new films. It’s been four years since The Way Back, more than ten since Master and Commander, and nearly twenty since The Truman Show. Those most recent films of his are pretty great across the board, and perhaps the time and care taken with each is a major reason why. This wasn’t always the case with Weir, though: he released five films in the 1980s alone (Gallipoli, The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, The Mosquito Coast, and Dead Poets Society), all of which were fantastic, and he had a pretty productive early ’90s too.

The film that forms the divide between super-productive Weir and less-so Weir seems to be Fearless, a 1993 drama starring Jeff Bridges as a plane crash survivor. For whatever reason, Weir took more time off following Fearless than he had since he first started directing (although one might find it hard to believe it was truly “time off”). From then on, a new Weir film would be all the more cherished for the infrequency now associated with it.

Continue reading Fearless (1993) →

Featured

Somewhere (2010)

2 Comments

I’ve always been spectacularly underwhelmed by anything within a ten mile radius of Stephen Dorff. He is in a ton of stuff I haven’t seen, to be fair, but then again most of those seem like instantly forgettable action flicks with airy titles relating to crime (Felon, Officer Down, .45) or cars (Brake, Carjacked) or just ambiguously intense shit (Heatstroke, Riders, Deuces Wild). Maybe there’s an unseen masterpiece buried in there somewhere. The things with Dorff I’ve had the distinct pleasure (ahem) of enjoying (ahem) have been Blade, in which he plays the most annoyingly puerile vampire this side of Twilight; Immortals and The Iceman, which I had to look up to make sure he was actually in because I don’t remember him at all; and, of course, those stupid ads for Blu Cigs. To boot, I mix the guy up with Skeet Ulrich, and that’s never good.

And yet Johnny Marco from Somewhere is a categorical douche, and wouldn’t you know it? Dorff is actually a great choice for the part. After he breaks his arm falling down the stairs at a party, Hollywood actor Johnny spends a few weeks at a high-price resort in the Hills getting pampered and watching strippers flail around in his room. He drinks and smokes. He sits. He orders room service and opens another beer and returns to the couch to smoke and sit some more. Every now and then his phone buzzes, receiving texts from a private number that say things like You’re a fucking asshole and You think you’re such hot shit, don’t you? and Johnny hardly manages a shrug as he lounges around his room.

Continue reading Somewhere (2010) →

Director Series: Ron Howard

Night Shift (1982)

3 Comments

The upgrade in quality from Ron Howard’s directorial debut Grand Theft Auto to his sophomore effort Night Shift is pretty remarkable. Howard did direct a string of TV movies in the interim (Cotton Candy, Skyward, and Through the Magic Pyramid) and had directed a few shorts prior to Auto, so it wasn’t like Night Shift was only the second time he touched a camera. He was also doing this really weird thing called “acting” on occasion.

Regardless of where it falls, Night Shift is a surprisingly hilarious addition to Howard’s early canon. Auto relied heavily on Happy Days cast members and members of the Howard Family to round out the cast and crew, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but could be a bit distracting at times. Speaking of distracting, Auto also had a funk-bass-porno soundtrack that served to bolster the overall feel of the thing as hastily-made. And most importantly, the character motives in Auto just didn’t make a whole lot of sense across the board.

Continue reading Night Shift (1982) →